The murder of Julius Caesar

The story

The Ides of March

In the Roman calendar the days were not counted as we do, but were referred to three fixed dates of each month: the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides. The Ides fell on the 13th of the month, but in March, May, July and October they fell on the 15th. They were sacred to Jupiter. For us the “Ides of March” have become a byword for betrayal, because of what happened on 15 March 44 BC.

On that day Julius Caesar, the most powerful man in Rome, was killed during a meeting of the Senate. After winning the civil war against Pompey, he had become dictator, and shortly before he had had himself named dictator for life. Many senators thought he was about to become king, and for the Romans, who had driven out their kings almost five centuries earlier, this was the gravest accusation that could be made against a citizen.

The plot

The conspirators were numerous. The ancient sources speak of some sixty senators, perhaps as many as eighty people, involved in the plot or informed of it. They were led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and Decimus Junius Brutus. In the group there were also friends and supporters of Caesar, who had been upset by disappointments or personal grudges. They considered themselves the defenders of the Republic and called themselves the “liberators”.

Before that day, the ancient authors tell us, there were many omens. Suetonius lists sacred horses that refused to eat and seemed to weep, a little bird with a sprig of laurel killed in front of the Curia, the dreams of Caesar and of his wife Calpurnia. A soothsayer, the haruspex Spurinna, had warned Caesar to beware of a danger that would not last beyond the Ides of March. When Caesar met him that day and told him with a smile that the Ides had come, Spurinna replied that they had come, yes, but had not yet gone. These stories should be taken with caution: many were perhaps added afterwards, when everybody knew how it had ended.

The blow

That day the Senate was meeting in the Curia of Pompey, a large hall beside the theatre built by Pompey, Caesar's old rival. In the hall there was a statue of Pompey and, according to the tradition, Caesar fell at its feet. The statue, found in the 16th century, is today in Palazzo Spada, in Rome.

What was the attack like? According to Suetonius, one of the conspirators, Tillius Cimber, came up on a pretext and seized Caesar's toga, and one of the Casca brothers struck him first, in the shoulder or the neck depending on the sources. Caesar covered his head with his toga. In all he was struck, says Suetonius, by 23 stab wounds; a doctor named Antistius reported that only the second wound, in the chest, had been fatal. Some authors tell that Caesar said to Marcus Brutus, who was striking him: “You too, son?” We do not know if it is true: it is a tradition. The body was taken home by three slaves.

The next day

The conspirators counted on being welcomed as heroes. Instead the senators ran away, the city was seized by panic and the liberators did not manage to take control. They had wanted to throw Caesar's body into the Tiber, but gave up the idea for fear of Mark Antony and Lepidus, Caesar's supporters.

A few days later, Antony gave a funeral speech and Caesar's will was opened, naming his adopted son Octavian as heir. The crowd, moved and angry, burned the body in the Forum, and Antony had to restore calm. The Curia was walled up, the Ides of March were called the “day of parricide” and the Senate never met again on that date.

The settling of scores

Octavian, the young heir, came forward. With Quintus Pedius he had a law passed, the lex Pedia, which condemned the conspirators to exile. Most of them were dead by 43 BC. In 42 BC, at Philippi, in Greece, Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Antony and Octavian and took their own lives. A few years after Caesar's killing, Rome had not gone back to the days of the Republic: it was at war, and in the end Octavian would found the empire.

Today, in the centre of Rome, the place of the assassination is in the sacred area of Largo di Torre Argentina, where archaeologists have uncovered temples and the remains of buildings. In 2012 some scholars once again pointed out the spot where Caesar sat.